What to Do Before Merging Churches

Young church plant needs a building. Older church needs a pastor and hope for the future. So why not merge? It’s an increasingly common scenario in our day. How can you know, then, if this is the right move for your church? What can you learn from other churches that have attempted this process, so fraught with hidden dangers for both sides? I’ve seen it attempted dozens of times, and I’ve even seen it work well in a few cases. Let’s investigate biblical principles and best practices so more of these mergers turn out as win-win situations for the kingdom of God.

On today’s podcast, I talk with two pastors who have walked through successful church mergers.

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We talked about their experiences and what they’ve learned about merging churches.

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Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast, writes the weekly Unseen Things newsletter, and has written and contributed to many books, including Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited the forthcoming The Gospel After Christendom and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.

Mike McKinley is the senior pastor of Sterling Park Baptist Church in Sterling, Virginia. He is the author of Church Planting Is for Wimps (Crossway, 2010); Am I Really a Christian? (Crossway, 2011); Did the Devil Make Me Do It? (The Good Book Company, 2013); Passion (The Good Book Company, 2013); and The Resurrection in Your Life (The Good Book Company, 2015). His most recent book, co-authored with Mark Dever, is 90 Days in Ruth, Jeremiah and 1 Corinthians (The Good Book Company, 2016).

Shawn Wright was a part of Trinity Baptist, a church planted in Louisville in 1996, which merged with Clifton Baptist Church in 2001. Wright now serves as pastor of leadership development at Clifton.